Media

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has lodged a Notice of Appeal from the Federal Court’s decision on 30 August 2017 dismissing the ACCC’s proceedings against Medibank Private Limited (Medibank).

The ACCC has instituted proceedings against Servcorp Ltd and two of its subsidiaries (Servcorp) alleging that a number of terms in Servcorp’s standard form contracts with small businesses are unfair and should be declared void.

Servcorp supplies serviced office space and virtual office services such as office suites, secretarial services, IT, communications and personal assistants to its clients, many of whom are Australian small businesses.

Speaking at the Asia Pacific Fuel Industry Forum today, ACCC Chairman Rod Sims outlined how fuel price data from websites and apps empower price-sensitive consumers. The industry can then attract these consumers through discounts to increase their sales.

Since 2016 fuel price data has been readily available to motorists from an increasing number of websites and apps. These include the NSW FuelCheck scheme, the GasBuddy app, the NRMA app and the 7-Eleven app. This information assists consumers find the best time to buy at sites with the lowest prices.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has instituted proceedings in the Federal Court against JJ Richards & Sons Pty Ltd (JJ Richards) alleging that eight clauses in its standard form small business contract are void because they are unfair under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).

JJ Richards is one of the largest privately-owned waste management companies in Australia and provides recycling, sanitary, and green waste collection services.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has decided to not oppose the proposed acquisition by Tronox Limited of the titanium dioxide business of National Titanium Dioxide Company Limited (Cristal).

From tomorrow, every business across Australia will be banned from charging customers excessive surcharges for using certain types of EFTPOS, Mastercard, Visa and American Express cards to make payments.

The excessive surcharging ban has applied to large businesses since September last year and now extends to all businesses that are either based in Australia or use an Australian bank. The ban does not affect businesses that choose not to apply a surcharge to payments.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report on the Australian petroleum industry for the June quarter 2017 shows that retail margins remained high despite quarterly average petrol prices in the five largest cities dropping by 3.9 cents per litre (cpl) from the March quarter to 125.2 cpl.

In 2016-17 annual average petrol prices were at their lowest levels in real terms since 2001-02 (see Chart 1).

Annual average retail petrol prices in the five largest cities were 122.6 cpl in 2016-17, slightly higher than in 2015-16 in nominal terms.